West Africa's Well Intervention Opportunities
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
ACCRA OWI2 19WA JUN 4-5 WEST AFRICA’S WELL INTERVENTION CONFERENCE West Africa’s Well Intervention Opportunities JOHN SHEEHAN Disclaimer: Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, neither Offshore Network Ltd nor any of its affiliates past, present or future warrants its accuracy or will, regardless of its or their negligence, assume liability for any foreseeable or unforeseeable use made thereof, which liability is hereby excluded. Consequently, such use is at the recipient’s own risk on the basis that any use by the recipient constitutes agreement to the terms of this disclaimer. The recipient is obliged to inform any subsequent recipient of such terms. Any reproduction, distribution or public use of this report requires prior written permission from Offshore Network Ltd. ACCRA OWI2 19WA JUN 4-5 WEST AFRICA’S WELL INTERVENTION CONFERENCE West Africa’s Well Intervention Opportunities This report is in three parts: an introduction to the West African well intervention industry, case- studies in the region to highlight and notable service companies that work in the region. The aim of this report is to give you an introduction to the market or an update if you’re already in the know. CONTENTS PART 1: WEST AFRICAN OFFSHORE ACTIVITY .................................................................. 3 PART 2: WEST AFRICAN WELL INTERVENTION CASE STUDIES ..................................... 4 Egina FPSO project ................................................................................................................. 5 Nigeria Oyo-8 RLWI operation ............................................................................................. 6 Bonga Field ............................................................................................................................... 6 Well Intervention in Algeria – Welltec ................................................................................ 7 PART 3: WELL INTERVENTION SPECIALIST COMPANIES ................................................ 7 Training ....................................................................................................................................10 OWI WA 2019 .........................................................................................................................10 Cutting Well Intervention Costs in West Africa PAGE 2 ACCRA OWI2 19WA JUN 4-5 WEST AFRICA’S WELL INTERVENTION CONFERENCE PART 1: WEST AFRICAN OFFSHORE ACTIVITY Oil and gas development activities are continuing to heat up offshore West Africa with an increase in production from mature fields creating strong demand for Riserless Well Intervention (RLWI) services in the region. Figure 1 Offshore Rig Offshore Nigeria There have been significant deepwater offshore campaigns drilling its first wells in the MSGBC Basin at the Jamm-1 and in Africa’s oil and gas industry in recent years and it is Yaboy-1 wells offshore Senegal and Mauritania respectively. estimated that some $180 million in investment will be Kosmos will target the large Orca prospect offshore pumped into 88 upcoming oil and gas projects in the region Mauritania, while Svenska intends to drill the Atum-1 by 2025. Around a quarter of this investment will be in prospect offshore Guinea Bissau. Nigeria, while other countries in West Africa, such as Ghana This fall in exploration activity is adding to pressure to and Angola, will also continue to be a focus of attention. ensure maximum extraction of oil and gas at existing and From shallow water licensing in Congo Brazzaville, to marginal fields with techniques such as Riserless Light billion-dollar tenders in critical infrastructure, there is a Well Intervention (RLWI). This is proving to be a cost- growing desire by international companies to win licences effective method of intervening in the region’s offshore and operate within the West African oil and gas sector. The wells, using suitable support vessels instead of rigs. The Republic of Congo has an ongoing licensing round, while the higher operating efficiency and lower spread rate of an Republic of Guinea is set to further develop its upstream RLWI system results in a much lower cost per intervention sector in a bid to become a regional energy hub. compared to the use of rigs. Nigeria’s Department of Petroleum Resources hopes that RLWI can boost output From an exploration and appraisal perspective, Wildcat from 2.2 million b/d currently to as much as 4 million b/d. data show that high-impact exploration in deepwater West Nigeria remains Africa’s largest oil and gas producer and in Africa disappointed in 2018, according to Westwood Global the past decade, industry-wide production from deepwater Energy Group. The only potentially commercial discovery fields has added over 800,000 b/d to Nigeria’s output. was at Eni’s Kalimba-1 well offshore Angola. There were some high-profile failures, such as Kosmos’ Requin Tigre-1 offshore Mauritania, FAR’s Samo-1 offshore Gambia, and two probably non-commercial pre-salt discoveries at Boudji-1 (Petronas) and Ivela-1 (Repsol) offshore Gabon. This year will see limited exploration activity, with Total West Africa’s Well Intervention Opportunities PAGE 3 ACCRA OWI2 19WA JUN 4-5 WEST AFRICA’S WELL INTERVENTION CONFERENCE Well Intervention Offshore Ghana Figure 3 Offshore Ghana Oil Fields Map There have been many other significant oil and gas will be drilled with the Maersk Viking ultra-deepwater developments elsewhere in West Africa, including in drillship. Aker Energy is targeting approximately 450 million Ghana, where Maersk Drilling is currently using its newly boe (gross). The plan is to develop the Pecan field with built drillship, Maersk Voyager, to provide drilling services a purpose-built FPSO connected to a subsea production to oil companies. Maersk Drilling’s contract from ENI to system at 2,400 meters below sea level. First oil is targeted deploy the Maersk Voyager on the Offshore Cape Three for 2021 at a plateau production of around 125,000 b/d of Points (OCTP) Project in Ghana has been extended to oil. 2022. The OCTP project, located about 60km offshore, Currently, Maersk Drilling have a total of 260 locals features oil and non-associated gas fields, and will access employed in Ghana – 238 offshore and 22 onshore, some approximately 41 Bcm of gas and 500 million bbl of oil. First 55% of the total in-country workforce. Maersk Drilling oil was produced in 2017 and initial gas in 2018, with peak sees West Africa as one of the few regions of the world production planned to be 80,000 boe/d in 2019. The project where there are unexplored areas with huge potential. will provide domestic gas supply to Ghana’s thermal power The company highlights Senegal and Mauritania as really plants for more than 15 years. interesting emerging offshore markets, with the Ivory Another key project awarded to Maersk Drilling is the Coast, Equatorial Guinea and Namibia as other hotspots Pecan-4A appraisal well in the Deepwater Tano Cape going forward. Three Points (DWT/CTP) block offshore Ghana, which West Africa’s Well Intervention Opportunities PAGE 4 ACCRA OWI2 19WA JUN 4-5 WEST AFRICA’S WELL INTERVENTION CONFERENCE PART 2 – WEST AFRICAN WELL INTERVENTION CASE STUDIES In this section we take a look at some of the successful projects that are up and running offshore West Africa, including examples of RLWI. CASE STUDY: Egina FPSO project Figure 4 Egina Oil Field. Credit: TOTAL Total’s Egina oilfield offshore Nigeria began production at proved that the largest industrial projects in the world can the beginning of 2019 and once fully up and running, the be completed in Nigeria. This is a first not only for Nigeria field is expected to produce at a rate of 200,000 b/d of oil, but also for representing about 10% of total Nigerian output. Africa and it represents a remarkable achievement in local The Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit content development in Nigeria. used to develop the giant Egina field is the largest one Total As part of the cost reduction initiative, the Water Injector has ever built. This project has also involved a record level of Christmas Tree installation and testing was carried out from local contractors. Six of the 18 modules on the FPSO were an Offshore Intervention and Maintenance Repair (OIMR) built and integrated locally, and 77% of hours spent on the vessel. That intervention was also designed to gather project were worked locally. Start-up has been achieved information for placement of future wells in what is a highly close to 10% below the initial budget, which represents faulted Egina reservoir structure. The job scope included more than $1 billion of CAPEX savings, due in particular to opening reservoir isolation valves, followed by an injection excellent drilling performance where the drilling time per test to estimate well productivity and interference testing well has been reduced by 30%. to assess reservoir connectivity and fault behaviour. Located about 20km from the Akpo field, Egina covers an The Egina field is located in the OML 130 block, which is area of around 500 square miles. It is situated at a water 150 km off the coast of Nigeria. The field is being developed depth of up to 1,750m. by TUPNI in partnership with the company’s coventurers The Egina project was a successful collaboration between NNPC, CNOOC, SAPETRO, and Petrobras. LADOL, Total, and several Government agencies and has West Africa’s Well Intervention Opportunities PAGE 5 ACCRA OWI2